• Place an order, or for other inquiries:
  • 416-923-3567 ext. 3325
  • content@newsmediacanada.ca
  • Home
  • Why CommunityWire
  • How It Works
  • Services & Rates
✕

MEDIA ADVISORY: CUPE calls out North Bay hospital for low morale, cutting positions, huge overtime costs, record grievances, media conference Thursday

13 April 2022
Categories
  • English
  • Government
  • Media Advisory
Tags
  • Canadian Union of Public Employees
https://cupe.ca/

Event Information

Begins: 14 April 2022 @ 1:00 PM
Location: North Bay, ON (virtual)

NORTH BAY, ON –/COMMUNITYWIRE/– With Ontario hospitals dealing with record staffing shortages and now a pandemic sixth COVID-19 wave, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is raising serious concerns about North Bay Regional Health Centre’s (NBRHC) conflictual and costly approach to staffing stability and labour relations. 

In 2022 alone the hospital has cut 4% of the 900 member CUPE 139 bargaining unit. Twenty-three positions including in direct care, environmental cleaning and clerical eliminated outright while seventeen others were terminated. Another six terminations are pending. Workloads for those left behind in departments have increased. Overtime is at record levels as managers scramble to staff their departments. 

Ontario has the fewest hospital staff to population of any province or country with a developed economy, “and cuts like these push things to the breaking point”, says Michael Hurley, the president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE).

On top of the cuts, the hospital is fueling a record number of grievances – 95 alone between the beginning of January and the first week in April. Last year there were 117 for the entire year.

CUPE 139 is very frustrated that its attempts to engage constructively with the hospital to resolve issues have been to no avail.

“The hospital should be trying to work with their staff and their unions to solve problems so that can keep as many front-line staff working taking care of patients. Conflictual labour relations are incomprehensible given how much the hospital staff in North Bay have stepped up during the pandemic and they are harmful to the teamwork that hospital care relies on. The hospital is spending money on lawyers and arbitrators when this money should be going on upstaffing and patient care. How much is this hospital spending to fight its front-line staff?” Asks Hurley. 

Additional details will be provided at a virtual media conference (https://bit.ly/3KHnNA2) Thursday, April 14, 2022, at 1 p.m.

CUPE, in partnership with SEIU Healthcare and Unifor has just launched a major advertising campaign focused on deteriorating conditions in our hospitals, hurting patients and staff.

-30-

For more information please contact:

Stella Yeadon
​​CUPE Communications​​
416-559-9300
syeadon@cupe.ca

Share

Submit Your News

EVENTS CALENDAR

  • MEDIA ADVISORY: How many registered practical nurses (RPNs) are considering quitting? Media conference outside Niagara Health Friday 1 p.m.
    4 May 2023
  • MEDIA ADVISORY: How many of Hamilton’s registered practical nurses (RPNs) are considering quitting? Media conference outside St. Joe’s Friday 11 a.m.
    4 May 2023
  • MEDIA ADVISORY: MPP Fedeli, when 60% of registered practical nurses (RPNs) polled are considering quitting, why doesn’t your government care? Media conference outside North Bay hospital Thursday 10:30 a.m.
    3 May 2023

RECENT RELEASES

  • Cochrane workers deliver near-unanimous strike mandate
    30 May 2023
  • Northeastern Catholic Education Workers Release Supermajority Letter Calling for a Good Contract Now
    11 May 2023
  • St. Catharines’ city workers vote in favour of strike mandate
    4 May 2023
  • The Aga Khan Museum Will Celebrate the Life and Impact of Rumi in a New Exhibition Opening This Spring
    3 May 2023
  • Developmental service workers back at work with solidarity and momentum as they ratify new agreement
    27 April 2023

CATEGORIES

Be seen where the audience is looking
News Media Canada
365 Bloor Street East, 3rd Floor
Toronto, Ontario MrW 3L4

416-923-3567 or toll-free 1-877-305-2262
content@newsmediacanada.ca

© Copyright 2023 News Media Canada. All rights reserved.